Creating headache for people in the name of protest

Demonstration, protest and criticism of government are the legal right of citizens in democratic societies. As the electors of governments, people have the right to stage demonstrations against governments to call for reforms and achieve their legitimate demands. The governments are also obliged to logically and acceptably respond to those legal demands.

In this context, respect for law and national interests is must. Both sides should behave within the ambit of the law so that the protest proves constructive. Thus, the protests and demonstrations should not deprive other people of their right to work and live without any problems. As other problems, demonstrations also mostly unfortunately do harm than good to people in Afghanistan. The recent spate of demonstrations launched in Kabul under the name of “Uprising for Change” is one of the examples of such trouble-making protests, which did more harm than good to the people.

In addition to claiming several lives, the protest demonstrations created many problems for Kabul residents, including consecutive road blockages during the month of Ramadan. All roads leading to very important areas of Kabul city were blocked and businesses shut for several weeks, which reportedly inflicted tens of millions of dollars in economic losses to people, while did not lead to any positive change in the situation. Yesterday, the protestors once again took to the streets in vehicle convoys, blocking roads in many parts of the city. Kabul residents could not go to work and take their patients to hospitals.

Learning a lesson from the bitter experience of the past, the protestors should launch meaningful civil movements instead of creating problems for people so that they don’t affect people if not benefit them. While no one opposes civil movements aimed to protect the interests of the public, misuse of the right to take to the street and create problems for people is a not a solution. Both the demonstrators and government should turn to use logical approaches, and avoid vexing the nation already plagued by enormous adversities.

One factor of the Afghan conflict is the Afghan government's failure to maintain a balance in its foreign policy. The imbalanced foreign policies of governments have paved the ground for Afghanistan to turn into a battlefield of proxy wars.